“They are favoring a magic wand solution,” Johnson said on the program, produced with editorial assistance from WisPolitics.com. “If there was a universal background check that could actually keep guns out of the hands of bad people and prevent those tragedies I understand why people would support that. But that magic wand solution doesn’t exist.

“If supporters of those background checks were serious about at least moving in the right direction, from their view point, why didn’t they vote for the Chuck Grassley bill?” asked Johnson, referencing the veteran GOP senator from Iowa.

According to Johnson, the Grassley bill would have improved the enforcement of existing gun laws and addressed some of the problems with straw purchases.

“It maybe wasn’t all they wanted, but why wouldn’t they at least support that?” he said. “The reason they wouldn’t is because they want more of a political issue rather than solving the problem.”

-- Johnson also kept up the heat on the Obama administration for its handling of the 2012 Benghazi attack.

“We had four Americans lose their lives, and I don’t believe they would have had to lose their lives,” he said.

Obama’s administration and his re-election campaign, according to Johnson, wanted the American public to believe the nation was more secure.

“The opposite was true,” Johnson said. “Al Qaeda was spreading, Benghazi was deteriorating in terms of security. and the State Department and the administration knew full well.”

According to Johnson, State Department officials denied and clamped down on additional security because they wanted to protect the illusion that their policies in Libya were working. Johnson rejected the claim budget cuts disallowed additional security because the military would have done it for free.

“The Administration misled the American people for days… for politics.”

-- Johnson’s six-year term comes to an end in 2014. The freshman who beat Russ Feingold says he still hasn't decided if he'll run again.But he hinted at another bid.

“I ran to take tough votes to fix the problems. I was hoping I could do that in six years and go home… But I might have to hang around for another six years,” he said.

-- State Sen. Julie Lassa told the program haste led to many of the problems at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., which replaced the Department of Commerce.

The Stevens Point Democrat also said the flawed hierarchy stifles communication and job reporting.

“The board of directors has very little say over what happens at the WEDC. We don’t even pick the secretary or CEO or the staff. They are very reluctant, in the past, to tell us what was going on.”

Lassa said the directors are “toothless” and WEDC essentially answers to Gov. Scott Walker, so he should take responsibility for the problems in the organization.

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